Rent Dune (2021)

Mesmerising - for an hour - Dune review by PD

For an hour or so, 'Dune' is mesmerizing, throwing off seductive glints of treachery as it presents the tale of Paul Atreides (an admirably restrained Timothée Chalamet), the gifted scion of the House Atreides, whose father is leading what looks to be an opportunity, though one that’s fraught with peril. This first section draws us into Herbert's world slowly but successfully, and hopefully will get many scurrying back to the books. There’s also much to admire in Patrice Vermette’s production design, particularly the Zen elegance of the aristocratic Atreides household on their beautiful oceanic home planet of Caladan and the Arrakis stronghold Arrakeen, a sprawling structure that combines ancient Egyptian and Aztec influences. The costumes by Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan also are full of eye-catching touches, from the gauzy gowns of Paul's mother Jessica and other women billowing in the desert wind to the utilitarian body-cooling “stillsuit” developed by the Fremen for survival in the desert, whilst the techy stuff is also really good, notably the giant Harkonnen harvesters raking the sands like desert beetles as monstrous sandworms tunnel up to the surface to swallow everything in their path, and the splendid wasp-winged choppers known as ornithopters, buzzing through the skies.

BUT. What the film doesn’t do is shape Herbert’s intricate world-building into anything really meaningful. For the history and complex societal structure that are integral to the author’s vision are condensed into a blur, cramping the mythology, whilst the layers of political, religious, ecological and technological allegory that give the novel such exalted status get mulched in a terribly thin, superficial screenplay (have these people actually read it all? or are they simply not clever enough to transfer it to screen?) - far too much of the dialogue could have been written by George Lucas, which is fine if you're 12 years old but I was hoping for so much more. Meanwhile, far, far too much of the latter stages of the film are dominated by Star Wars / James Bond style chase scenes which are both predictable and mind-numbingly tedious, whilst the sadly inevitable Lord of the Rings style portentous, subtle-as-a-flying-mallet score is among the most intrusive I've heard for many a moon. Only part one, of course, so jury out, and enough of interest to send me back for more, but if it's going to be more of the same then I'm afraid I'll probably be sensing a missed opportunity here.

Sci-fi snooze-fest - Dune review by Alphaville

Dull po-faced treatment of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel. Director Denis Villeneuve makes far more of a hash of it than even David Lynch did with his 1984 version. If you thought Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 was dull, wait till you see this.

It’s such a ridiculous premise anyway, with giant sand worms and a spice that enables space travel. Star Wars was equally ridiculous, but at least that had some life. You’ll find very little action here, despite what the trailer tries hard to make you think. Most of the 140min screen time is spent in darkened interiors, where various earnest characters indulge in screeds of exposition. A sand worm makes only a brief appearance to lighten the spiel.

After 20mins of this guff you may well decide another 2hrs of it is best watched on FF in the hope of catching something interesting. Beware good reviews of this film that seem to be written by fans of the novel. The film’s last line? “This is only the beginning.” Indeed. It’s little more than a dull lengthy prologue to the sequel.

Best scifi for a very long time - Dune review by JD

This is one glorious film.

It looks stunning. Infact i think you could give this film 5 stars if there was no sound!

The cast is made up of big names and everyone is excellent. There is no turning up just for the pay cheque going on here thats for sure.

Ive never read the books, but i think this is a combination of faithful and skilfully adapted. It sure is a joy to watch

I always hark on about how they dont make films like they used to. Well in the hands of Denis Villeneuve it appears they still can.

Its not perfect, a couple of things that got me was a lack of world building and the ending was literally like they had a 5 hour film and just scissored half way! But they are minor complaints.

Lets hope this film makes loads of ££ so we can get more like it. And i cant wait for Ep2

Sun and sand what more could you want? Oh yeah, the worms. - Dune review by Strovey

This could be the best way to approach this long-awaited big-budget and modern version of Dune. I knew it was about great dynastic houses who control a desert world and there were lots of intrigue and double-crossing on a grand scale and that was about it.

If you are going to make this grand science-fiction vista there really is only one director for it, a man who has proven repeatedly he has the ear for grounded science-fiction Denis Villeneuve.

With the help of his screenplay team of Spaihts and Roth he has crafted what is a complex and wide-ranging story into something that is watchable and more importantly understandable and engaging. No mean feat. The only concession that was made, and it was understandable, was that this was always going to have to be a ‘part one’ the story is too large and impossible to truncate into a single film, even a three-hour film. I can confirm that this has worked. I know members of my immediate family who know nothing about Dune and are not really science fiction aficionados who really liked the film and understood what was going on.

The effects, costume and set designs are perfect for this story and I could wax lyrical about them but saying perfect really does sum up that whole look and feel of the story.

The story is definitely has a feel of Star Wars and Game of Thrones, with exploding rockets and laser blasts, even a ‘power’ and waring families that are trying to be in control of…well everything but the most important and valuable resources. But if you want to deconstruct further this really is very Shakespearian in the sweep and feel of the story.

If there is any criticism the House of Atreides is too heroic and any who do not finish the film’s run time all meet their demise in heroic ways. A bit pat to say the least.

Another strength for the film is some particularly good casting, everyone here is placed into their role due to their strengths, Jason Momoa, frankly annoying as Aquaman, is great as the ‘jock’ style best friend of Paul. Oscar Isaac, always excellent value for money, is the heroic Henry V of Dune and Rebecca Ferguson as a water-downed Lady Macbeth perhaps? I am going too far and losing this analogy, but it was so easy to do.

This brings us to the lynchpin that the whole film revolves around, Timothée Chalamet, even with a great screenplay, effects and set design this can only disguise a poor film or performance so far. Fortunately, Chalamet is a good actor and in the right role, here modern dreamboat and louche works well with the character of what some would see, within this world, as a spoiled privileged brat. This is the reason I think he did not work so well in Little Women, too modern, even for an update of a period piece.

Skarsgård is good as the Jabba of this story, slimy, self-seeking and repulsive, although why anyone in the story would trust him enough to do a deal with him makes little to no sense. His henchman is the mountainous Dave Bautista, very on dimensional, and just plain evil. Why do evil henchmen spend so much time in the gym is beyond me, but Bautista works with what he has and works well.

Dune is not difficult to follow, does not drag its feet and is intriguing and good enough for me and my family members who watched it to look forward to part two.

Which I shall.

Big Snore - Dune review by HM

I cannot imagine what people see in this out of date film. The original was bad enough (I got through 30 minutes before giving up) but this strung out version is only part 1! The book was published in 1965 so the themes and feel of it may have been original at the time (Star Wars writers may have been influenced) but SF stories and movies have covered this sort of territory many times since. Great Cgi effects (2 a penny nowadays) Atmos sound fantastic, but at the end of the day the story is lame.

SF geeks like the creation of future scenarios in novels, but in a movie it is just another deforested landscape with baddies and goodies. How does the wealth of the 'empire' manifest itself? So tribes fight over the rights to spices to sell throughout the Universe; so what? Who cares? What are the moral imperatives? Do we care who wins? I don't.

In the end we are expected to sympathise with the hero, a teenage boy Starbuck character with 'powers' prompting comparisons with the 'force' in SW.

A big yawn frankly. Lots of fight scenes, spaceships flying about, sorry but I expect more than special effects these days I have overdosed on them.

A bit underwhelmed - Dune review by SH

I get the feeling if you watch this WITH the upcoming extra parts it'll be better but watching this as a stand alone movie it is a bit underwhelming. It looks good, it's acted good but lacks any real umph. Hoping part 2 brings more grit to the movie.

Hmmm… - Dune review by Rod

Stunningly futuristic sets and enchanting cinematography that captured the desolation of Arakis and the uneasy, ever-present sense that, despite the advancement of humankind, the Atreides were at the mercy of the utterly punishing environment and those that would do them harm. With the combination of the cinematography, storyline and characterisations (faithful to the book) I found myself feeling oddly uneasy all through the film. And that… satisfied me.  

BUT… there were two things that pushed the other way, uneasiness into boredom - (a) sometimes too much of a samey feeling of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’. At least the David Lynch version gave me the wonderment -for a world 8,000 years in the future - that things I was witnessing should be weirdly unfathomable in those future days! But I think that impression was deliberately intended with a ground breaking sci-fi 1980’s film - I got the fact that I didn’t “get” what I was seeing sometimes in the Lynch version.  I liked that weirdness that wasn’t quite there with this newer version. And (b) too much time spent later in the film at the stage of the encounter with the Fremmen - among the rock and sand in low light and often inaudible script. An anticlimax - but then the ‘Part 2’ film should pick up the pace again??